Advisor in Your Corner

How California spousal support duration really works, what can change or end it, and how the 2026 SB 711 tax change reshapes the lump sum versus monthly decision. 

In California, permanent spousal support almost never means permanent, and a rule that changed at the start of 2026 quietly reshaped the math underneath every new support conversation in the state. This episode covers how long spousal support actually lasts, including the ten year mark and why it is a jurisdictional question rather than a guarantee, what can change or end support, and the new Senate Bill 711 tax treatment for agreements executed on or after January 1, 2026. It closes on the decision that sits underneath all of it: whether to take support as an ongoing monthly payment or as a lump sum buyout, and how to weigh the two without guessing.

This is educational and is not legal, tax, or investment advice. Bring the legal questions to your own attorney and the tax questions to your own tax advisor.

Learn more about Marriage Financial Solutions at https://marriagefinancial.com and about the affiliated registered investment adviser, Weinberger Asset Management, at https://wamasset.com. For a confidential, complimentary conversation about where you stand financially and what your options look like, schedule a consultation at https://calendly.com/abwcalendar/inquiry-30-minute.

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 How college gets funded in a California divorce, what happens to a 529 you already have, and how to keep child and spousal support from vanishing if the paying parent dies. 

 In this episode of Advisor in Your Corner, Alex Weinberger, CFP and CDFA, walks through the part of divorce that worries parents most, the money behind their children's future. He covers the California rule that surprises almost everyone, that courts generally will not order a parent to pay for college, so it has to be negotiated into the settlement; what happens to a 529 college savings plan when one parent controls it; how custodial accounts differ from 529s; and the protection almost no one raises, that child and spousal support generally end if the paying parent dies, and how California law lets a court require life insurance to secure it. He closes with the beneficiary designation mistakes that send money to the wrong place, and the questions to ask before signing. Learn more about the firm at Marriage Financial Solutions, https://marriagefinancial.com, and about the affiliated fiduciary advisory firm at Weinberger Asset Management, https://wamasset.com. To schedule a confidential, complimentary conversation about where you stand financially, visit https://calendly.com/abwcalendar/inquiry-30-minute. 

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How businesses are valued in a California divorce, why the it is worthless claim is often a low starting position, and how goodwill and a neutral expert reveal what a company is really worth.

When a spouse says the business is worth little in a divorce, it is often a starting position rather than a fact. In this episode of Advisor in Your Corner, Alex Weinberger, CFP and CDFA, walks through how a business is valued in a California divorce, the three valuation lenses experts use, why goodwill is where the biggest dollars and disputes live, the specific places the spouse who did not run the business gets shortchanged, and how to test the claim without becoming a forensic accountant. Learn more about the firm at Marriage Financial Solutions, https://marriagefinancial.com, and about the affiliated fiduciary advisory firm at Weinberger Asset Management, https://wamasset.com. To schedule a confidential, complimentary conversation about where you stand financially, visit https://calendly.com/abwcalendar/inquiry-30-minute.

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How to manage a divorce settlement: the first financial decisions to make when the money lands. When a divorce settlement is finalized and the money arrives, the early decisions shape the next several decades. In this episode, Alex Weinberger, a Certified Financial Planner (CFP) and Certified Divorce Financial Analyst (CDFA), explains what to do first with a divorce settlement, why the headline number is rarely what you can actually spend, and how to build a financial team after divorce.

What this episode covers:

• Why a settlement is worth less than its stated number, and how house equity, retirement accounts, and taxable accounts each carry different taxes and rules
• What to do first with a divorce settlement: why the strongest opening move is to make no large or irreversible decisions
• How cost basis and tax character determine what each asset is really worth to you
• How to find a financial advisor after divorce, and what fee only and fiduciary actually mean
• How to turn a lump sum settlement into income that lasts across your full time horizon

Common questions answered in this episode:

• Is a divorce settlement taxable? Dividing assets between spouses in a divorce is generally not taxable in itself, but the tax comes later and depends on the type of asset.
• How much of a settlement can you safely spend each year? There is no single percentage; a sustainable level depends on your cost of living, time horizon, taxes, and how the money is invested.

Marriage Financial Solutions is a financial consulting firm in Los Angeles that helps individuals and their attorneys understand the financial side of divorce, serving clients across California. Learn more or schedule a confidential consultation at marriagefinancial.com.

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Keeping the marital home can feel less like a financial decision than like keeping your footing. It's also one of the largest, least reversible money decisions in the entire divorce, and the number on the spreadsheet usually isn't the real number.

In this episode, Alex Weinberger explains why a house is not the same as cash, the capital gains exclusion that quietly drops from 500,000 to 250,000 dollars the day a divorce is final, and the embedded basis that travels with the home in a buyout. He walks through what it actually costs to carry a home alone after a refinance, the opportunity cost of locking wealth in the walls, and the middle path of holding jointly and selling later.

Whether you're weighing this in your own divorce or you're an attorney, mediator, or advisor supporting someone who is, this episode gives you the questions to ask before anyone signs.

In this episode:

• Why a house and an investment account of equal value are not interchangeable
• How the capital gains exclusion is cut in half at divorce, with a worked example
• The basis you inherit in a buyout and the tax stapled to the home's value
• The real monthly cost of keeping the home on one income
• A five-question framework for deciding to keep, sell, or hold and sell later

If you're navigating a divorce and want to understand what keeping or selling the home really means for your financial future, Alex Weinberger and the team at Marriage Financial Solutions work directly with individuals and the professionals who support them. A confidential, complimentary consultation can help you see where you stand before anything is signed. Learn more at marriagefinancial.com.

The information provided in this podcast is for educational purposes only and does not constitute financial, legal, or tax advice. It is not a substitute for working with a qualified professional.

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Most people never see the double dip coming, because it hides in the gap between two different parts of a divorce. The same dollars get counted once when a business or pension is valued and divided, and then again as income when support is calculated. One stream, two bites.

In this episode, Alex Weinberger explains what the double dip actually is, why the valuation method rather than the asset itself determines whether it exists, and how California courts have treated it since Marriage of White in 1987. He works through concrete examples on both the business and retirement sides, separates enterprise goodwill from personal goodwill, and shares the questions that tend to move real money in a settlement.

Whether you're navigating your own divorce or you're an attorney, mediator, or advisor supporting someone through one, this episode shows why the spouse whose team sees the overlap clearly tends to walk away with the better result.

In this episode:

• What the double dip is, in plain language
• Why how you value an asset, not what it is, drives the exposure
• Enterprise goodwill versus personal goodwill, and why the distinction matters
• What California's Marriage of White established about pensions, division, and offsets
• A worked business example and a pension example, both with real numbers
• A practical checklist for spotting and modeling the overlap before anyone signs

If this conversation raised questions about your situation or a client's, Alex Weinberger and the team at Marriage Financial Solutions work directly with individuals navigating divorce, and alongside the attorneys, mediators, therapists, and coaches who support them. Learn more at marriagefinancial.com.

The information provided in this podcast is for educational purposes only and does not constitute financial, legal, or tax advice. It is not a substitute for working with a qualified professional.

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How California divides restricted stock and options in divorce: the Hug and Nelson time rule, the date of separation, and the after tax traps. 

In many California high net worth divorces, the largest asset on the table is not the house or the retirement account. It is a block of restricted stock and options that has not fully vested. How that block gets divided can swing by a large margin depending on two things: one date, and one word.

This episode walks through how California divides equity compensation, and where a financial partner changes the result for a family law attorney and their client. We cover:

Why unvested RSUs and options are community property to the extent they were earned during the marriage, even when they vest after separation.

The two time rule formulas, Hug and Nelson, and why the choice between them is really an argument about what a grant was for.

Why the date of separation quietly sets the community share of every unvested grant.

The tax trap of treating a share like a dollar, and why equity should be valued after the embedded tax.

The mechanics of dividing equity, from buyouts to deferred distribution, and why most plans cannot be split the way a retirement account is split.

Read the companion article: https://marriagefinancial.com/blog/rsu-stock-options-divorce-california

Advisor in Your Corner is hosted by Alex Weinberger, CFP, CDFA, President of Marriage Financial Solutions, a financial consulting firm in Los Angeles working exclusively with individuals and families navigating divorce. Learn more at https://marriagefinancial.com or schedule a private consultation at https://calendly.com/abwcalendar/inquiry-30-minute.

This episode is for general informational and educational purposes only and is not financial, tax, or legal advice. Investment advisory services are provided through Weinberger Asset Management, an affiliated registered investment adviser.

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A divorce settlement can balance to the dollar on paper and still leave one spouse with far more spendable money than the other. The reason is tax, and in a high net worth estate the gap can be the size of a house.

This episode is for family law attorneys, mediators, and the divorcing clients they advise. We walk through why an equal looking division so often is not equal once tax is accounted for, and how to catch the gap before a settlement is signed.

In this episode:

• Why an equal balance sheet is not an equal split
• Cost basis, the most overlooked number in a property division
• How the family home and retirement accounts are taxed in opposite directions
• The depreciation recapture trap hiding in rental real estate
• Why the 2026 tax landscape makes this worth a fresh look
• Five questions to pressure test any settlement before signing

Key takeaways:

• A dollar of cash, a dollar in a pre tax retirement account, and a dollar of appreciated stock can share the same balance and hold very different real value.
• Transfers between spouses in a divorce are generally not taxable, but the basis travels with the asset, so the low basis position carries a future tax bill to whoever takes it.
• The primary residence gain exclusion is twice as large for a married couple as for a single filer, which can change what selling the home costs after the divorce.
• The truly equal divisions are the ones where someone checked the basis, the tax character, and the timing before the schedule was locked.

Questions answered in this episode: Is a 50/50 divorce split always equal? Not necessarily. A schedule lists balances, not after tax value, so assets with different tax characters can look equal while one spouse keeps more. What is cost basis and why does it matter in divorce? Basis is what was paid for an asset. Low basis means a large built in gain and a large latent tax that follows the asset to whoever receives it. How are the home and retirement accounts taxed differently when divided? The home carries a gain exclusion that shrinks for a single filer after divorce, while a pre tax retirement account still owes ordinary income tax at withdrawal.

If you are working through a matter with a concentrated low basis position, a heavily appreciated home, or a lopsided mix of pre tax and after tax assets, this is the kind of case where an after tax analysis belongs early. To talk through a specific situation, schedule a private consultation at marriagefinancial.com.

Marriage Financial Solutions is a financial consulting firm providing certified divorce financial analysis to individuals, families, and their attorneys. It is not a financial planning firm. Investment advisory services are offered separately through Weinberger Asset Management. This episode is general education and is not legal, tax, or investment advice. Work with qualified family law and tax counsel on the specifics of any matter.

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Your trusts were built to protect your family from the IRS. They were not built to be unwound in a divorce. Here is what changes when sophisticated estate planning collides with the end of a marriage, and why the most expensive mistakes in high net worth divorce often happen in this exact category.

In this episode, Alex Weinberger, Certified Financial Planner Professional and Certified Divorce Financial Analyst, walks through what actually happens to revocable living trusts, irrevocable trusts, SLATs, ILITs, GRATs, QPRTs, family limited partnerships, and dynasty trusts when a high net worth couple divorces.

You will learn:

Why affluent families build these layered structures in the first place, and why almost none of them were designed with divorce in mind.

What happens to revocable living trusts and joint trusts when a marriage ends, and why the trust itself often matters less than the underlying ownership of the assets.

The irrevocable trust problem, and why the analysis varies dramatically by state, by trust language, and by how the trust was funded.

Why SLATs, the spousal lifetime access trust, has become one of the most contested vehicles in modern high net worth divorce, and what makes the unwinding so difficult.

How ILITs, irrevocable life insurance trusts, get handled in a divorce when the policy is still in force and the former spouse remains a beneficiary.

The team you need around you when sophisticated estate planning is part of your divorce picture, and why the family law attorney working alone is rarely enough.

When a postnuptial agreement can resolve estate planning conflicts before they become contested in litigation.

This episode is essential listening for individuals contemplating or navigating a high net worth divorce, and for the family law attorneys, mediators, CPAs, estate attorneys, and wealth advisors who serve them.

Marriage Financial Solutions is a financial consulting firm in Los Angeles serving clients across California on the financial side of divorce, with particular focus on high net worth households where the asset structures and the planning history require specialized analysis. If you or a client is navigating a divorce involving sophisticated estate planning, the firm welcomes new engagements.

To learn more or schedule a conversation, visit marriagefinancial.com.

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After divorce, the average woman over fifty experiences a forty-five percent decline in her standard of living. The average man experiences twenty-one percent. That gap is not an accident, and it is not inevitable.

In this episode, Alex Weinberger, CFP®, CDFA®, walks through what he calls the forty-five percent cliff. Where the number comes from, why the lower earning spouse is structurally more exposed in divorce, and the specific settlement patterns that lock people into the worse outcome. He covers the lump sum trap, the marital home trap, the investment risk transfer, and how California courts have shifted their approach to spousal support over the past decade. He also covers two items that belong in every gray divorce settlement conversation and almost never get there: healthcare bridge costs between divorce and Medicare, and the Social Security divorced spouse benefit rule.

If you are a woman in your fifties, sixties, or seventies navigating divorce, or a professional who works with clients in that situation, this episode is for you.

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